I was looking at my new Grizzly catalog and saw they had a new 15 inch planer at a lower price than the regular ones. It turns out that it has no stand. You either have to buy their stand for it or make one which is no problem. Instead of the table going up or down like a normal planer that size the top with the motor goes up and down. I think this may be useful if I build infeed and outfeed support so that it will work on all thicknesses of lumber. I am just not sure if this might be any good and wanted to ask people who know more about these things than I do. Any thoughts would be helpful or if any of you have used planers like this before (excluding the benchtop ones that follow the same principle). Thanks in advance and I will be looking forward on the feedback.

11 replies so far

Looks interesting. I didn’t look at the planers yet in my new catalog. That would actually open up the doors to a lot of the hobbyists who need something better than a lunchbox but do not have the space.

What’s the horsepower on that? It looks like universal motor, which is nice to have and will help the noise reduction a lot. If the dust collection is like their larger ones, and it looks like it is, as long as there is a decent cfm flow, it will be a fairly clean machine.

The only thing bad I could see is if it’s 220v instead of 110. Something like that would need the higher hp but by it’s design would see more work in a garage or basement shop and might not have the power reqs needed.

It is 3 hp 230 volt 18 amps. The motor is induction like on a good table saw. (induction motors typically are less noisy) The dust collection looks pretty good but since the PA showroom closed I will not be able to look at it before buying it. I actually prefer it to be 240 volt because I can use thinner wire if I decide to buy it. ( when you double the voltage the amps are cut in half) EX: 10 amps 120 volt = 5 amps 240 volt

I just bought the Grizzly G0815. Here’s my review that I posted on the Grizzly website (with some additions) -

I took a chance buying the brand-new Grizzly G0815 planer, and I’m glad I did. It replaces my 40-year-old Parks 12” planer, and the Grizzly exceeds the Parks in every department—quality of cut, noise and vibration levels, and dust collection. There is one odd design feature about the Grizzly—no bed rollers—but this is actually an advantage, because it almost guarantees no snipe (out-of-adjustment bed rollers are usually the culprit). Because I always surface one side before sending the piece through the planer, the rollers won’t be missed.

The anti-kickback fingers are undoubtedly a good safety feature, but they take some getting used to (the Parks didn’t have them). It’s hard to see the in-feed roller, and therefore difficult to gauge where you are when setting the machine for the first pass.

A few less-than-ideal details: the chain and sprocket drive for the headstock lifting mechanism is completely enclosed and can’t be accessed for lubrication unless you unbolt the machine and lift it off the stand. Also, the dust hood port points to the left; as luck would have it, I needed it to exit on the right, so in order to reverse the hood, I had to cut off the existing mounting flange, make a new one out of 1/16” alum. and epoxy it to other side.

The machine weighs 340 lbs—unless you have a fork lift or cherry picker at your disposal, you’ll need (4) guys to lift on to the stand.

I have the same planer but it’s yellow and green and labeled “Woodtek”. It came with a stand but I mounted it on a repurposed TV console cabinet. I think I’ve had it about 8 yrs. I remember it was $600 delivered.

Absolutely no complaints. It has bed rollers but I don’t use them. Also has infeed and outfeed rollers and I use those. I used some 1.25” plastic pipe and some 6/4 lumber to make a frame over the planer to hold the stock while planing. The pipe fits into the “tubes” and over the height adjustment screws.

I am debating ordering a shelix head for it or selling it and buying a Griz with the head already installed.